By Pastor Kevin Barnhart
Spring Grove Evangelical Free
The desperation of my heart came pouring out. I wanted healing to happen and life to return to normal. I wanted everything to be ok, but it wasn’t. I started looking up, eventually my eyes drifted down feeling defeated, and then I hit my knees. When it was all said and done my face was flat on the floor, profound sadness threatening to overtake me. Day after day, night after night I found myself reaching and stretching my whole heart, soul, and faith to the heavens. Praying to God; asking, knocking, seeking. Scripture invites us to ask, seek, and knock… well, then, I was pounding on the door.
Days turned to months and months turned into years. The prayer remained; the posture persisted, and my knees were sore.
Have you also had moments in which the cries of your heart to God were fervent, desperate, and without ceasing?
If life has taught me anything it has taught me that with time, with a few miles under our Muck boots, we will all have moments when we have been desperate and hungry for hope, for healing, and for answers… thirsty for Him to come, to hear our cry, and to answer our prayer.
These kinds of prayers are incredible, they will rise above any sin and with every breath search out the heavens. These prayers are not the kind of prayers that get lost in an abyss of busyness. These are the kinds of prayers that begin and end our days.
A call from a doctor, papers from a lawyer, an unbelieving friend, a terminal illness, a wayward child, a lost job, a desired job, a prayed for baby, a miracle, a prayer from the deepest recesses of our heart. Life will bring us to these moments; and these are the moments when we realize God is the only rope… He is the one and only rope that can save us.
He did save me. He did answer. Maybe not exactly how I thought He would, but He did hold me tight, he carried me, and he was faithful. God was faithful. God saw me.
So, let me ask you what happens to those answered prayers? Are we as thankful, are we on our knees, and consumed with thanksgiving? We say please but do we say thank you?
Imagine the scene. Year after year of praying to God, knocking, seeking, asking when at last He answers. Jesus himself opens the door, He takes hold of your hands, lifts your head, dries your tears, and heals your heart. The Savior locks eyes with you and He answers your prayer. The prayer that kept you awake at night and filled your soul throughout the day…
Now I know it sounds crazy, but people (we) forget to say thank you. Or maybe it was a quick cursory nod of thanks that quickly fades into the background, the kind of thank you that brushes off the very hands of God and runs away with a gift they (we) do not deserve.
My heart could not begin to describe the love I had at that moment when Jesus opened that door. I too will confess that I am not always successful at saying thank you every day, but my goal is to return with a thankful heart not just once; but day after day, month after month, year after year with as much passion as I had when I began the journey. Why you might ask-well; because we (I) GET TO never let go of those hands — the hands that opened the door, picked me up, wiped my tears, saw my heart, and answered my prayer. Ultimately, I get to hold tight to the hands that would suffer and die on a cross… for you and for me. If we turn around and say THANK YOU, we get Him.
“One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a LOUD VOICE. He threw himself at Jesus feet and thanked him…” – Jesus had healed 10 – but only one got HIM!
Be the ONE… SAY THANK YOU… RUN BACK — fall on your knees in thanksgiving… and let your soul be filled with the greatest gift of all time – HIM!
Leave a Reply